Monza: Series practice 2 report

Monza, Free Practice 2: Grosjean tops the sheets

The fight between the Auto GP title contenders has already started: in the second Free Practice session the three major rivals for the drivers' crown took three of the four top spots.

The best time was posted by Romain Grosjean: the championship leader wasted his last lap with a mistake at the first chicane but despite this he was able to keep the others at bay thanks to a 1'38"078 posted the lap before. Behind him was Carlos Iaconelli, the only "not DAMS" driver in the top 4. Third was indeed Duncan Tappy, with Edoardo Piscopo just 0.06 adrift. The session development, with a light rain in the first minutes and then some sun allowing the drivers to mount slick tyres for the last laps, meant that everybody was steadiliy improving in the final 10 minutes of the Practice.

With the timing sheets changing lap after lap, in the end it was Luca Filippi who took 5th, ahead of Giorgio Pantano, Fabio Onidi, Jan Charouz and Julian Leal.

Closing the top 10 was Alexander Sims, who boasted a great drive in the first part of the session: when the track was still very wet, the brit talent stopped the clocks on 1'49"6, a laptime that his rivals were able to equal only some minutes later, when the track conditions got better. Sims ended ahead of Davide Valsecchi and Federico Leo, both feeling more at ease with the Zytek powered Lola compared to the morning practice.

Romain Grosjean: "I'm pretty satisfied considering that I did my laptime well before the others and that I wasted my last one. The track was still a bit damp in some spots and Lesmo in particular was still slippery, so I expect a big improvement tomorrow".

Carlos Iaconelli: "In the last laps the track improved a lot, and I think that the set-up that we chose can be a good starting point for tomorrow. Anyway I think that for Qualifying and Race 1 the track conditions will be very different, both in grip and temperature, so we will have to be good in following the track".

Duncan Tappy: "Compared to Navarra my weekend had definitely a better start. The balance of the car is already good, and today I lapped quickly and steadily. I think that tomorrow, with the dry track, the laptimes will improve by even 3 seconds".

-source: autogp